And then there’s always the BCS

Worse Than Dow 3000?

Try a Rose Bowl game between Northwestern and Oregon State...

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Not that I expect this to stop anyone

It might, however, hold the potential for eventually ruining someone’s day.

LATER:

Via:  The Register, which notes that you won’t read about this in the BT forums.

Previously.

Posted by: Old Grouch in Linkage at 21:53:48 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Our “best and brightest”?

Are You Smarter Than a Politician?

Of the 2,508 people surveyed, 164 say they have held an elected government office at least once in their life.  Their average score on the civic literacy test is 44%, compared to 49% for those who have not held an elected office.  Officeholders are less likely than other respondents to correctly answer 29 of the 33 test questions
...
Not all officeholders do poorly, of course.  Some elected officials rank among the highest scorers.  But the failure rate on the test among those who have won public office is higher (74%) than among those who have not (71%)...

Could quibble over some of the topics tested (and not tested), but the picture isn’t a pretty one. The test is here.

Oh, and O.G. scored 33/33.  I wonder how well reporters do?


Via:  AFP, via Slashdot.

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 19:04:17 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Confirm your Sunday plans now

Joint meet up with the AoSHQ morons!  Details here.

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Bush administration solves childhood obesity epidemic

...the Biscuit Belt has gone from feast to famine practically overnight.

...IF you can believe two contradictory things at once.


Say, this looks like an excuse for another animated GIF...

more...

Posted by: Old Grouch in Linkage at 00:36:42 GMT | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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And speaking of The Wall Street Journal...

...I’m just pleased as punch^[1] to see them doing their part to advance the “politics of envy.”

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Posted by: Old Grouch in The Press at 19:59:21 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Suspicions: CONFIRMED

In a Wall Street Journal oped in which he enumerates some potential problems for the upcoming Obama administration, Karl Rove lets something slip:

Lawmakers dislike grass-roots lobbying by those representing people in their states or districts.

Taken in isolation, I might take this as a reference to “community organizers,” the Jesse Jacksons or Al Sharptons who seem to be forever popping up to claim a share of spoils in the name of some group with a grievance. People who are very noisy, very good at recruiting a crowd for a demonstration, but whose actual depth of support is difficult to determine.

But Rove says this in the context of using the Obama campaign’s existing e-mail list as a tool to mobilize known Obama supporters to push for the Obama administration’s agenda. Which is something quite different.

You certainly can’t label any pressure on Congress produced by some mass mailing to known Obama supporters as “astroturf.” Congress would be hearing from real people who would, presumably, have a some interest in the issue at hand (even if their only interest was the desire that the new President get what he wants).  This is in no way different from the existing letter campaigns that are orchestrated by everyone from Greenpeace to the National Rifle Association.

Which leads to what I believe what Rove actually means:  Congress dislikes orchestrated campaigns by special interests when they involve stirring up Congressional constituents.

Well, I can understand that.  Once people start paying attention to what you’re doing, they may not like what they see.  And their dislike may turn into “no” votes next election.  Better for the interest groups to let sleeping dogs lie.

But isn’t accountability one of the things that Congressional service is supposed to be about?

Oh, snap!

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 19:45:55 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Ave atque vale

Elsewhere:  Mark says farewell to Murphy.

Posted by: Old Grouch in Dear Diary... at 00:25:53 GMT | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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“I hope none of y’all are science majors.”

Scenes from chem lab.

Posted by: Old Grouch in Linkage at 21:15:46 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Service resumed

Apologies for the interruption.

(There might have been a post or two last Friday, except that my ISP picked that day to crash its password server.)

Then, spent the next three days away from internet service, eating too much.good.food, visiting the Schmidt Museum, and prowling through a store full of used books.

More to come, after I get things caught up. Meanwhile, here's a picture of a 100+-year-old Gingko biloba.

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